"Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I have arrived back from Australia not quite penniless, but certainly with the realization that flitting around the globe and having a good time, just cannot go on forever. No matter how badly I want to just kick back and enjoy life, getting some income through the door while I work on my business strategy is now looking pretty essential.

I have always been a saver, so taking a break from work and making myself unemployed was a huge deal. Likewise when I see my hard earned savings starting to deplete I start to flap in true Stretton style.

So cap in hand I toured the recruitment agencies with a copy of my CV to look for a little part-time role. Having been employed for the last 20 years, this is not an experience I have had to endure..ever. For those of you that have not had this experience it is truly embarrassing.

You sit in the main reception filling out a stack of paperwork with pages of terms and conditions. I am 100% sure that I am one of the few that actually read the T&C’s. I almost felt I needed to get out a highlighter to underline elements of the contract. Of course this is something I have been doing for many years with my previous roles. Ensuring that I wasn’t getting myself or the company into something that created liability for items out of our control.

Papers complete, you wait more for someone to deem that they have the time to talk to you. Without looking at your CV their opening statement (all bar 1 recruiter) is how they are actually unable to help you find a job. What a way to promote your business…quite bizarre. Nothing like setting you up for immediate failure in your quest.

It is at this point that they now look at your CV, they finally decide whether you are employable or not, you then pop out of the “waste of time bucket” into “oh this is interesting bucket” and they final start to talk to you like a human being.

This of course does not mean that they will find you a job, this means that you need to call and email them daily for updates for potential jobs.

Of course the world wide web is a catalogue of potential jobs roles. Reed, Indeed and many more companies out there. You build a profile and they send you job alerts to match your criteria. The downside to this is you start to get spammed by a multitude of companies offering to help you “build your career“.

You start to receive calls and emails for jobs that your would have once given your right arm to have from Devere, Deloitte, Chaucer all full time, all executive positions but so far away from what you want right now it takes all your strength not to waiver.

All I wanted was a little local part-time job to give me some income, not much to ask is it?

For the time being I must continue to count the pennies!

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strets30uk

2015 was a year of change and adventure. Having quit my job, I went to South Africa to a conservation project for 2 months then to Nepal for help with the rebuild and do a trek. Just what does 2016 have in store?